FollowBlackBerry’s budget-friendly Q5, launched at the BlackBerry Live conference in Orlando last month, is hitting the shelves in about a week. Major retailers have set the release dates as July 1st and July 3rd, depending on their pre-order dates, stock availability, and so on.
U.K. retailer Phones4U, the first to confirm that it will offer Q5, has set a July 3 release date, and is currently taking pre-orders with major networks. It is offering the handset free for a two-year contract costing £21 per month, including a 100-minute talk time, unlimited text and 100MB data on Vodafone.
Carphone Warehouse is releasing it on July 1st. It is also taking pre-orders, offering the device free on contracts beginning at £21 per month. What’s more, Carphone is offering the SIM-free version at £319.95, said to be the cheapest till date. Online retailer Unlocked Mobiles says that it has the SIM-free black version, while the white version will be available from July 1st. It is offering the SIM-free handset for £334.98. Retailer Clove has listed BB Q5 for pre-order at £330, planning to offer the black version on July 1st.
BB Q5 is the third in the series of BlackBerry’s smartphones featuring the BB10 operating system. It features BlackBerry’s characteristic physical keyboard, a feature that distinguishes BlackBerry devices from iPhones and Android devices. The Q5 features a 3.1-inch 720p LCD display, 2GB RAM, 1.2GHz dual-core processor, 8GB storage, 5MP rear camera and 2MP front camera. The Q10, the higher-end version, differs only by a few features, such as the 16GB storage, 8MP rear camera and LED display.
The Q5 launched in Dubai last week and is likely to arrive in India in July. It sold for about $400 in Dubai and is expected to cost under 25000 INR in India.
